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Robert Hormats, now Vice Chairman of Kissinger Associates, Inc. (Credit: US State Department)

Clinton confidant Sid Blumenthal sends Clinton an email that appears to be based on the NSA’s monitoring of German Prime Minister Angela Merkel. Blumenthal gives Clinton an all caps warning: “THE FOLLOWING INFORMATION COMES FROM AN EXTREMELY SENSITIVE SOURCE AND SHOULD BE HANDLED WITH CARE. THIS INFORMATION MUST NOT BE SHARED WITH ANYONE ASSOCIATED WITH THE GERMAN GOVERNMENT.”

Two memos follow. The first two-page memo will later be totally unredacted and contains an analysis of German economic policy based on private conversations between Merkel and some of her top officials. The second four-page memo will later be totally redacted.

Clinton then forwards the email containing both memos to her aide Jake Sullivan with the note, “Fyi–could be worth forwarding to Hormats and asking for reaction and whether worth sharing more broadly (w WH [White House] or Treasury).”

“Hormats” is a probable reference to Robert Hormats, who is under secretary of state for economic, business, and agricultural affairs at the time. Whistleblower Edward Snowden will reveal the NSA’s monitoring of Merkel in 2013. (US Department of State, 2/29/2016) (The Guardian, 7/1/2015)

It is not clear how Blumenthal gets such intelligence, since he is a private citizen with no security clearance at the time.